And Finally

In a real shocker, AFP has just calmly stated that the situation in Gaza is a civil war. They bury it a few paragraphs into the story and simply state it as a matter of fact. After all the tapdancing around the issue, they finally come out and say it. And the war threatens to spread to the West Bank next. (As I understand it, that area has more Fatah loyalists than Hamas. So the payback may not be long in coming. Although it unlikely that Israel will allow the situation to get as bad as it is in Gaza.)

Diplomats said a top aide to Abbas told them some of the president's men ran for their lives, others ran out of bullets and that after five days of battle "Gaza is lost."

Abbas, who called the fighting "madness," and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas agreed in a telephone call on the need to staunch the bloodshed, according to officials on both sides.

But with the machineguns and mortars of civil war echoing in Gaza City after dark, hospital officials tallied another 33 deaths over the day, including a teenager at a peace rally and schoolboy shot leaving an exam. Two Palestinian U.N. refugee workers were killed too.

Most of the dead though were fighters.

Each side accused the other of more atrocities in vicious fighting that has killed 81 people since Saturday. With Fatah forces routed or surrounded in places, Palestinians' two small territories, Gaza and the West Bank, were ever more estranged.

In the relatively tranquil and more populous West Bank, Fatah militants threatened to attack Hamas figures and small groups wrecked fittings in Hamas-run public buildings.

Still no real denunciations of the atrocities by Western governments, however. Or I haven't found any, at any rate.

A Spin Too Far

Iowa Voice takes a look at two polls out today. One, an LA Times-Bloomberg poll is being spun mightily as proof Americans back the legalization of illegal immigrants. But the poll has a single, craftily worded question on the issue that reads suspiciously like a push poll. (They lump a whole bunch of things together without giving a real alternative.) The poll result is also wildly out of whack with other polling I have seen. The other poll is from Rasmussen and is consistent with previous polls from that organization. Iowa Voice:

Two polls today on the amnesty bill, and two very different results.

First is from the LA Times, and they say (get this) that 63% of Americans support a “path to citizenship”:

A strong majority of Americans — including nearly two-thirds of Republicans — favor allowing illegal immigrants to become citizens if they pay fines, learn English and meet other requirements, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.

That is a striking show of support for a primary element of an immigration overhaul bill that has stalled in the Senate amid conservative opposition.

Only 23% of adults surveyed opposed allowing undocumented immigrants to gain legal status. That finding bolsters the view, shared by President Bush, that the bill’s opponents represent a vocal minority whereas most people are more welcoming toward illegal immigrants.

Second poll is from Rasmussen, and they say that:

Just 20% of American voters want Congress to try and pass the immigration reform bill that failed in the Senate last week. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 51% would like their legislators to “take smaller steps towards reform” while 16% believe they should wait until next year.

So it’s pretty clear that someone is spinning (my polite way of saying that they’re lying through their teeth). So which is it? I’m betting the LA Times, because Rasmussen clarifies the position that these people took when asked the question by saying:

Rasmussen uses what looks to be a consistent set of questions that give real choices. The LAT-Bloomberg poll does not. Again - it looks like a push, not a real question. Rasmussen's results indicate that people want the border problem fixed first. That is the same position Iowa Voice and myself have taken all along. If the border gets fixed first, everything else can be addressed. Bloomberg's report is actually more dishonest than the LA Times, incidentally. They completely leave out the qualifiers of what people were pushed into answering. Compare the ledes:

Bloomberg: June 12 (Bloomberg) — Most Americans support central elements of the legislation overhauling U.S. immigration laws the Senate shelved last week after it failed to gain sufficient support from lawmakers.

A new Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll shows that at least a plurality of Americans backs the two most contentious provisions of the bill, a proposal to offer 12 million undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship and the creation of a guest- worker program. Of a third provision — a point system for immigrants based on professional qualifications — many say they don't have enough information to have an opinion.

LA Times: WASHINGTON — A strong majority of Americans — including nearly two-thirds of Republicans — favor allowing illegal immigrants to become citizens if they pay fines, learn English and meet other requirements, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.

The LA Times also publishes the exact question that was asked (left sidebar). (I have a screenshot if the link disappears.)

Savage Squirrel Severely Squashed

A German pensioner has discovered a new secret weapon that is unusually effective at curbing aggression in vicious squirrels. Beating them with your crutch stops them in their tracks - even when they are on a serious rampage.

The rodent jumped through a living-room window in Passau, on the Austrian border, on Tuesday and bit its first victim. With the squirrel hanging on by its teeth, the woman ran out into the street, where she managed to shake the animal off.

The squirrel then bit a builder before fleeing into a nearby garden, where it bit a 72-year-old man who eventually killed it with his crutch, police said.

Finally, an effective weapon against the rodent shock troops of the Animal Uprising™! However, because the squirrels possess a collective mind, all of them now know about the crushing crutch of chaos. Look for a rash of squirrel ambushes on anyone who is even limping a little. (They're notorious bullies.)

Consequences

Well, all that rushing to produce ethanol has already caused China to suspend production because of skyrocketing food prices. Guess who else is experiencing those skyrockets?

Americans. Get ready for $5 per gallon milk, it will be here by the end of summer.

"Prices are incredible," says Suzanna Wyman, shopping Monday at Shaw's Supermarket in Boston's Back Bay. "Milk, I heard, is going up even more…. I love fresh peppers and vegetables, but they're too much. Cereal is very expensive compared to what you used to be able to get it for."

The reason people are smarting: Inflation in grocery aisles is up by more in the first six months of 2007 than in all of 2006. That means food costs are on track for the biggest annual percentage hike since 1980, according to the Labor Department. The anticipated 7.5 percent increase would readily outflank the 2.6 percent core inflation rate to date, which excludes food and energy. It's across every grocery aisle, too, from burgers to bagels, from duck to dumpling.

Added to sticker shock at the gas pump, high food prices, especially for meat, are forcing consumers to scrimp, coupon-clip, and ponder the possibilities of a deep freeze to take advantage of discounts, says Boyd Brady, an extension agent at Auburn University in Alabama.

"There's a … combination of higher demand, natural disasters, higher energy prices – just a myriad of factors driving what price increases we're seeing across the food sector," says Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development in Ames, Iowa.

The chief culprit is corn, namely No. 2 feed corn, the staple of the breadbasket. In answer to President Bush's call for greater oil independence, the amount of feed corn distilled into ethanol is expected to double in the next five to six years. Distillation is already sucking up 18 percent of the total crop. The ethanol gambit, in turn, is sending corn prices to historic levels – topping $4 per bushel earlier this year, and remaining high. All of this trickles down to the boards at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, affecting the price of everything from sirloin to eggs (which are up, by the way, 18.6 percent across the nation).

There are a lot of factors here, but the main one - and the one that will keep prices rising rapidly, is the corn. And that, of course, is a direct result of the push for ethanol - and the subsequent massively inefficient energy overhead of that product. It is very likely that the massive energy overhead involved in ethanol production is also helping keep the price of gasoline high. There is a lot of corn farming and plant construction going on right now - both requiring a lot of fuel. So it is a double whammy on consumers, food and energy. And who is hurt the worst? Those least able to afford it, of course.

For some consumers, it's tough to hang on. In Savannah, Ga., the Salvation Army expects to serve 10,000 more meals this year because of high food prices. Americans are coping, too, simply by food shopping less often. Their average number of grocery store trips each week dipped below two for the first time since the Food Marketing Institute began its annual survey.

"You could get culture shock coming into this place, and it's not getting better," says Richardson Daniel, a longtime resident of Boston's Roxbury neighborhood, swooping into Shaw's.

This will become a great deal worse, folks. Bank on it.

Cajun Country Town Bans Plumbers!

Oh, sure, that isn't what they are calling it, but that will be the outcome. Because the town council of Delcambre, Louisiana has banned saggy pants.

Mayor Carol Broussard said he would sign an ordinance the town council approved this week setting penalties of up to six months in jail and a $500 fine for being caught in pants that show undergarments or certain parts of the body.

Broussard said he has nothing against saggy pants but thinks people who wear them should use discretion. "It's gotten way out of hand out here," he said.

Albert Roy, the councilman who introduced the ordinance, said he thought the fine was a little steep and should be more in the $25 range, but he still favored the measure.

"I don't know if it will do any good, but it won't hurt," Roy said. "It's obvious, and anybody with common sense can see your parts when you wear sagging pants."

They do not call it "plumber's crack" for nothing, you know.

UPDATE: And the Telegraph has picked the story up. I suspect there will be a run on Crack Spackle. (Thanks to commenter Sam L. for pointing out this product. Although it frightens us that he knew about it.)

Looking At Thompson

The Hill has an interesting analysis of the hugely successful campaign that Fred Thompson has run so far - even though he's not officially campaigning.

Clearly, Thompson is doing something right. His decision to appear on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” last night, for example, got people talking about the possibility that he’d replicate the hugely successful surprise announcement there by then-actor and now-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). Just the possibility of such a late-night show-stopper was enough to steal other Republicans’ daily ration of campaign oxygen.

The last episode of the “Law & Order” television series, in which Thompson starred, brought him more attention. And he was a commentator on Fox after the most recent GOP presidential debate. It’s a pretty neat trick to be an unofficial candidate and to be able to hog the camera to comment on the happy scene of your rivals exchanging blows.

And that’s perhaps the point about the Thompson campaign so far. Everyone assumes he’s in the race, and yet, because he’s an outsider, he doesn’t have to do all the things other candidates have to do. He gets more “earned media” because the will-he-won’t-he-and-when-will-he story is more compelling than the latest policy pronouncements of candidates who have already declared.

But there comes a point, and Thompson has surely just about reached it, when a candidate needs take the plunge or look indecisive and unserious. Buzz is wonderful, but it’s like an automobile — it cannot run on fumes indefinitely.

Which is actually a good point. There is a point where Thompson has got to get in formally. The Hill points out that the knives will come out then. Of course, the knives are already out in a stealthy fashion. But they mean that the infighting will begin in earnest then. True enough. I think Thompson has been running a fantastic campaign that has kept his name in the news - a lot - and I rather suspect that his sense of timing will give his formal entry into the race much greater impact. Then the battle will become interesting.

Blaming Everyone In Washington

John Podhoretz, writing in the New York Post, notes that the approval rating for Congress is measurably lower than it is for President Bush. And, he says, it is an indication of who the country is blaming for the mess in Washington: everyone.

We all know President Bush has had lousy approval numbers for two years. We know also that the disastrous approval ratings for Congress in 2006 were the best indicator that some major changes were going to take place last Election Day.

Less well-known is that throughout 2005 and 2006, generic approval ratings for Democrats were lower than Bush's.

Congress and the Democrats both saw an uptick after the November election, with the Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll registering a congressional approval rating of 36 percent six months ago.

Ah, for the good old days.

That poll now gives Congress an approval rating of 27 percent - 6 points lower than President Bush's poll average at Real Clear Politics.

So, when you hear about Bush being "deeply unpopular," remember that he's measurably more popular than Congress.

Congressional leaders are not faring well. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scores a 36 percent rating - which, as Noam Levey of The Los Angeles Times notes, is nine points lower than Newt Gingrich's approval rating in 1995, at exactly the same point during his speakership.

Even more alarming for Democrats, the very accurate Rasmussen poll features a 19 percent approval rating - yes, one-nine - for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Now, Republicans have no business celebrating the political mire in which Democrats find themselves. There's been a calamitous drop-off in the number of people who identify themselves as Republicans over the past year - from 37 percent in some reckonings in 2006 to 27 percent now. And in yesterday's L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll, Democrats hold an 8 point lead over Republicans when people are asked which party they'd vote for in next year's presidential bid.

Aside from the humorous aspects of the fact that Harry Reid actually makes Dick Cheney look like a rock star, there really is little to celebrate in all this news - for either party. But I'll point out, again, that the absolutely dismal poll numbers for Congress are going to hurt - badly - those candidates seeking the presidential nomination who are current members of Congress. This is bad news for the Democrats because both frontrunners are sitting US Senators. (This is aside from the fact that the track record for Senators gaining the presidency is rather bleak.)

When Sawfish Are Outlawed

Only outlaws will have sawfish. An Australian man, sleeping in his own trailer, was awakened by two attackers wielding an unusual weapon. The man was savaged by a sawfish snout.

Police said two thieves broke into a caravan at Bundaberg in southeast Queensland Tuesday night and attacked the 40-year-old occupant with the fish snout, a length of cartilage with a row of serrated teeth around its outside edge.

The victim suffered cuts to his back, hands and arms in the attack and was treated by paramedics after the assailants fled, they said.

Police later said they had dropped their investigation of the case after the victim withdrew his complaint for reasons that were not made public.

They did not say whether the attackers happened across the sawfish bill in the caravan or deliberately brought it with them as a means of subduing their victim.

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard know exactly what happened, of course. The two intruders were the sawfish and his human accomplice. Who better to use a sawfish bill than the original owner himself? So now, the Animal Uprising™ is sending sawfish assassins after people.

(Incidentally, one wonders if the matter wasn't dropped because of this other little nugget of news from a few days ago.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — An international conference on endangered species banned almost all trade yesterday in sawfish — large shark-like rays whose long snouts bristling with teeth are in high demand among collectors.

All seven species of sawfish are listed as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union due mainly to overfishing.

They are highly valued for their fins, meat and snouts known as rostra which can be up to 61/2 feet long. They also are caught and traded as live animals for aquaria and parts of their bodies are used in traditional Asian medicines.

Probably not, since the ban exempts the species found in Australian waters, but one has to wonder, doesn't one?)

The Atrocities Of Hamas

Ha'aretz is reporting that Hamas has virtually taken control of all of Gaza except Gaza City itself. Having run out of Fatah gunmen to shoot (or to give flying lessons to) they have decided to shoot civilians for fun.

At least 14 Palestinians were killed by Hamas fire Wednesday, including 13 members of Fatah, as Hamas was on the verge of completing its conquest of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas is now in control of southern, central, and northern Gaza, with Fatah's only remaining significant positions located in Gaza City.

One civilian was killed when some 1,000 Palestinians marched through Gaza City chanting "stop the killing" - only to draw gunfire from Hamas militants at a nearby police station seized from Fatah a day earlier.

Hamas gave Fatah-linked security officers in northern Gaza a two-day ultimatum to relinquish their arms, according to a statement sent by text message and announcements made on Hamas-linked radio stations Wednesday.

The militant group said that if the security forces don't turn over their weapons by 7 P.M. Friday, they will take the weapons by force.

Eight Fatah men were killed in fierce fighting near the home of senior Fatah official Maher Mekdad. Mekdad was able to escape, but Hamas took control of the area.

Hamas seized control of the refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip, after it swept into the central Gaza headquarters of Abbas' powerful National Security Forces facing only token resistance.

Hamas has systematically taken control of security positions in the north and south, apparently leaving the main battle for the Strip's security and political nerve center in Gaza City for last.

An announcer on a Hamas radio station said the offensive would proceed to the Abbas' compound and the National Security Forces headquarters in Gaza City.

At least 15 Palestinians were wounded Wednesday, including five civilians, two of whom are in serious condition.

And the press is still tapdancing. They are not calling this a civil war, even though territory is being seized by force. They are still allowing the Palestinians to claim that they are the victims of "outside forces".

Wild About Harry

It seems like just about everyone these days likes to beat heck out of Harry Reid. Since his approval ratings stand at about one half of the level of Dick Cheney, he's suddenly a popular whipping post. (On the other hand, he's always been a popular object of ridicule around here, because, regardless of poll numbers, he is inept.) So today, George Will applies a healthy clubbing to the Senate Majority Leader. Subject: immigration reform posturing.

Harry Reid, the Senate's majority leader and resident Uriah Heep, affected 'umble and syrupy sadness about the Senate's inability to pass the immigration bill that he pulled from the floor last Thursday evening for a transparently meretricious reason. Saying the Senate's time was too precious to expend on what would have been limited debate on a limited number of Republican amendments to the bill, Reid vowed: "Everyone that's been home, there are two issues that are foremost in their minds: Number one is the Iraq war and number two are gas prices. We're going to deal with that as soon as we finish with this immigration legislation."

So the Senate took Friday off, wasted Monday in the predictable futility of failing to pass a nonbinding nullity, a resolution expressing constitutionally irrelevant lack of confidence in the attorney general, then debated lowering gasoline prices — or cooling the planet, or something — by spending taxpayers' money to raise food prices. It took up legislation to quintuple the mandated use of mostly corn-based ethanol, which already has increased Americans' food bills $14 billion in the past 12 months. For such silliness, Reid scuttled the bipartisan attempt to improve the eminently improvable immigration status quo.

Harry is, at best, a one-trick pony. The vast majority of people in this country want the border secured first. This is not rocket surgery and it can be accomplished. If that is done, everything else can be worked out. But Reid is more interested in striking a pose and playing to the fringe of the party. All of which will surely get him a place in the history books, mind you.

As the most loathed member of his own party.